Luster Leaf 1612 Rapitest pH Soil Tester

I grew up on a farm and I've been gardening for over 50 years. When I was a child, we took soil samples to our county agent every few years and guessed during the years between samples. That was not often enough for NKP or PH. The County Agent's report covered 6 or 8 more things such as borax, aluminum, and calcium. Those things change very slowly and only need to be tested for only every 5 to 10 years. In the fifties and sixties, we just assumed the soil would need lime each year; it was acid. However, the amount we used was calculated by rule of thumb. Others used the taste test; tasting the soil to tell if it was sweet or sour; better than nothing but very distasteful when the fertilizer of choice is manure.If you do no other tests, do this one! PH controls whether or not a plant can take up nutrients. All the fertilizer in the world will not help, if the PH is wrong. I purchased the full test set as well as this one so that I could do more frequent PH tests and in more places such as around shrubs, bushes, and trees, especially fruiting trees and bushes. I have been using these products for at least 20 years. This purchase was just to renew my supply. I can usually go 2 or3 years with a full Luster Leaf set plus an extra PH test set. Buy and use it!. It will save you money on fertilizer and you can have the best garden in the neighborhood!

A friend of the family, after hearing of our gardening troubles, suggested we try a soil test kit to see if our garden patch was deficient in any plant nutrients. This kit was inexpensive so I decided to give it a shot.It's reasonably easy to use. You open the package (which is easy, unlike some of those sharp, hard to open electronics bubble packs) and remove the tubes, then remove the capsules inside. Go out to your garden patch, dig a 4-inch deep hole, then fill each tube to the first line marked in it. Bring the tubes back in, empty a matching-color capsule's contents into each, fill with distilled water to the fourth line on the tube, shake, and wait.Getting soil into the tubes is pretty easy. Emptying the capsules was more difficult. We ended up cutting off the top of them with scissors very, very carefully, and dumping the contents inside. Filling with water to the fourth line is also difficult because the tubes are pretty narrow (around the size of a AA battery). If I had it to do over again, I'd get an eye dropper to add the water and find a better way to open the capsules. The two halves seemed glued together well.The results were easy enough to read. Our soil is pretty alkaline, has virtually no nitrogen in it, a good amount of phosphorous (maybe even a lot), and a lot of potash. Determining how to correct this, using the info in the instruction card, is a bit more of a challenge. It's all presented as a series of tables showing various plants and their desired pH levels, a few different fertilizer/supplement types, and how they affect the soil. It's clear we'll need to add something with a lot of nitrogen and probably something acidic to lower the pH a little. I'm certainly no agriculture expert. :)For the price, the convenience of Prime shipping, and the ease of use, I'm happy with the kit. With the inclusion of an eye dropper and a better way to get the test chemicals into the tube than the capsules, this would be a fantastic little kit.

Based on my location and my own perception of my soil, I was expecting High Alkaline PH and low Nitrogen based on my grass(Bermuda) growth/health. I had no idea what to expect on Phosphorous and Potash.Overall this test confirmed what I thought, and I’m glad I did it. As for ease of use, it’s not super easy but I didn’t find it as difficult as other users. I was able to dig up my yard, 4” deep. I put a sample in a paper bowl and broke it down as small as possible. For the PH it specifically states in the instructions it’s best to use distilled water. I would highly recommend this. I do PH on my tap water for my fish tank And I know my tap water is also highly alkaline so to keep water quality out of the test use distilled water. As for the other 3 tests you have to make a 5:1 mixture water to soil and shake it up real good, then let the particulates settle out. I let mine settle for 2 hours. It says 30 mins-24 hours in the instructions. As far as the complaints about the capsules, I will confirm they aren’t super easy to open. I used a non-serated steak knife to slit open the outer side and it opened right up and I was able to pour it pretty easy. All said and done my kitchen counter looks like a lab experiment was going on.Bottomline: fast results, not too hard, very happy I did it. I’ll make some soil amendments and check again with the other pills.

This test is quite easy to use if you prep the soil right (dry, filter, crush to fine powder). But I do not think it is as accurate as the Luster Leaf 1662/1663 Professional Soil Test kit (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004W6JC2U/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1M7T0SNW2H7UE&coliid=I19DMY22GYFP75). I compared side by side (see photo). The Pro kits have much more distinct color difference where it really matters ~ 6.0-7.0 pH. This kit is somewhat beige at 6.0 vs bright yellow on the pro kit. Even more pronounced, this kit is light green at 6.5 vs bright orange on the pro kit. I also found my acidic soil potted blueberries were closer to the acidic pH I would expect according to the pro kit than the reading on this kit (6.0 vs 7.0). But this kit settles out in 1 minute, vs 5-10 minutes for the pro.

This product does exactly what it was meant for. Very happy with purchase :)

Worked very well!

Although the item took time to arrive it was well worth it. Easy to use and accurate reading.

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